Nigerian Work Research Articles

Perceived mentoring functions: does mentor's gender matter?

Purpose – The study aims to examine the impact of mentor's gender on perceived mentoring functions in the Nigerian work environment.Design/methodology/approach – Data were obtained from 161 employees through a survey of a large government‐owned health institution in South‐western Nigeria.Findings – Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that control variables jointly account for a significant variance in career development functions (R2=0.050, p<0.05) but did not predict psychosocial functions (R2=0.037, P ns). When mentor gender was entered in the second step, there was no significant change in R2 (ΔR2=0.01, P ns) for career development functions. However, R2 increased from 0.037 to 0.181 (p=<0.001) in psychosocial functions to indicate a significant change in R2 (ΔR2=0.144, P<0.001). Proteges perceived more psychosocial functions from female mentors compared to their male counterparts.Research limitations/implications – The findings are based on self‐report measures and results may not generalize to ...

Career Outcome of Job Experience and Gender Occurrence of Mentoring

The study examined the career success outcome of job experience and gender occurrence of mentoring in the Nigerian work environment. It utilized a factorial design in a survey of five hundred and ten managers from three international and seven local banks located in Lagos State, Nigeria. All the participants were involved in informal mentoring relationships. The results of the analysis of variance showed that there was no difference in career success between employees with high levels of job experience and those with low levels. In addition, job experience and gender did not combine to determine career success. Male protégés had better career success compared to their female counterparts, but the level of career success reported under male and female mentors was comparable. The gender of the protégé and that of the mentor interacted to yield four gender combinations that affected career success differently. Results showed that cross-sex combinations produced higher levels of career success compared to same-sex combinations. The findings imply that gender occurrence of mentoring is more relevant for career success among Nigerian employees. The paper recommends that training and mentoring intervention should be structured in ways that take cognizance of the gender factor.

Determinants of pay satisfaction of senior managers in the Nigerian Civil Service

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate senior managers' satisfaction with pay in the Nigerian Civil Service.Design/methodology/approachA field study was undertaken to test the hypotheses. The sample was drawn from senior managers in the Nigerian Civil Service. A quantitative methodological approach was used based on questionnaire designed to measure the variables that literature review has identified as having relationship with pay satisfaction.FindingsThe finding of this research paper shows that pay incentive scheme is a distinctive dimension of pay satisfaction among senior managers in the Nigerian Civil Service; and the perception of pay‐for‐performance determines the level of satisfaction with pay.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample size is very small relative to the total federal civil service population. Only senior managers were selected for questioning and may not reflect the general opinion in the Nigerian Civil Service. The sample is limited to the Federal Civil Service and excludes state and local government services in a federally governed country.Practical implicationsThe study has important implications for organisations and human resource practitioners in Nigeria to design their compensation and benefit programmes.Originality/valueThis research is one of the few studies that explore pay incentive schemes as a distinct dimension of pay satisfaction relevant to the Nigerian work environment. It adds value to the study of organisational justice by demonstrating that procedural justice, interactional justice, and distributive justice, influence pay satisfaction.

Sampling Issues in the Administration of Justice

Abstract Colin Aitken first became interested in sampling in the context of the administration of justice when the case of US versus Shonubi was brought to his attention. Shonubi was a Nigerian working in New York. He was arrested at Kennedy Airport when seen behaving in a suspicious manner in the baggage hall, having returned on a flight from Nigeria. He was found to have 103 bags of a white substance inside him, four of which were examined. The white substance was identified as heroin. Shonubi was arrested, tried and found guilty of drug smuggling. The question then arose as to the length of sentence he should be given.

Workers’ Perception and Reaction to Modern Technology: A Nigerian Study

The focus of this study is on the behaviour of the Nigerian worker in relation to modern technology at the workplace. Specifically, it examines the behaviour variables of the perception and reaction of the Nigerian worker to modern technology using various statistical tools. Our findings are consistent with the dominant view in the literature that the industrial worker has a great displeasure and an apparent tendency towards a dislike for modern technology. This view was the basis of our research hypothesis which the study has confirmed. More than half of the workers reacted, to a greater extent, negatively towards the introduction of modern technology at work. The predominant negative reaction is due to an equally predominant negative perception; though not in a perfect linear relationship.

The correlation between job satisfaction, job attitudes and work behaviour among the staff in academic libraries in Nigeria

Many scholars and entrepreneurs have expressed concern about the attitude of Nigerians to work. Sometimes it is difficult to associate the need of the Nigerian worker with motivational theories because it is argued that it appears as if the Nigerian

Petroleum and Proletarianization: The Life History of a Muslim Nigerian Worker

The social and economic history of Africa is necessarily constructed from many fragmented and contradictory sources. Often lost in sources dependent on archives, written records, and elite memoires are experiences and perspectives of inarticulate who, unwittingly, bear burden of large-scale structural change. Here it will be argued that historical representation requires writer to integrate interpretative meanings from lived experience of individuals at micro-level with more abstract theoretical concepts that explain deeper structural processes at macro-level. To move back and forth from these two levels, therefore, captures an individual's construction of meanings arising from experience of structural change. Linking these two levels, moreover, allows historian to ask: how does an individual worker experience and interpret theoryladen structural processes like the transition from peasant to proletarian, the articulation of modes of production, collective acts of class struggle, the acquisition of worker consciousness, or participation in populist political movements. Only a narrative can convey individual worker's interpretation of what is, by now, an accepted theorized structure of historical change: proletarianization. Despite distinct accumulation models prevalent in South Africa and Nigeria, affirmation of this approach for understanding proletarianization in Africa is surprisingly similar. Indeed, South African social history school, arguably most influential on continent, pursues same method. Take, for instance, William Beinart's methodological statement prefacing his analysis of experience of M, a Pondo worker from Transkei: it could easily preface following life history of Ahmadu, a Muslim Hausa worker living in Kano, Nigeria.

Childbearing experiences of contemporary Nigerian working mothers

Historically most African women have been working. There is, however, a tendency to consider such women as homebased or homefocus workers. The phenomenon of working many hours and miles outside the home and family authority which characterize contemporary mothers is considered a threat to motherhood and male-dominated family authority. This, however, does not seem to prevent more women joining the ranks of those combining full career and employment development with childbearing and household chores. This study is a preliminary attempt at exploring some of the dimensions of experiences of working mothers. The subjects were entirely volunteered. Their responses to the four principal areas of questioning indicate a perception about themselves, childbearing and womanhood functions, different from that predominantly held in society. This is especially relevant to areas of babycare, family size and planning, and apprehension on careers. There is determination to confront problems and offer an array of possible solutions tailored towards themselves, families, employers and policy makers.

INDIGENOUS CONCEPTIONS, WORK ATTITUDES AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

Nigeria's national development may be assisted by utilising indigenous conceptions of work in three different ways. The development of a Nigerian work ethic, based on the positive values to be found in the conceptions of work held by different language groups in the country, is one such method, which, by emphasising the similarities in work conceptions held by differing groups, could also aid national integration. Knowledge of work conceptions can be used by management to elicit a generally favourable attitude to work. Basically, this means making the best use of what Nigeria has, i.e. a policy of self‐reliance.

Euphorbia heterophylla:a Review of Distribution, Importance and Control

Abstract Euphorbia heterophylla Linn., commonly known as wild poinsettia, is widespread in the tropics. It occurs as a major weed in six tropical countries, an important weed in 22 tropical countries and is present in a further 37 countries. It causes serious loss of yield and quality in a wide range of crops as it competes successfully by growing rapidly and forming a dense canopy over the crop. Dormancy is an important factor in the persistence of seed reservoirs in the soil and American and Nigerian work show light and temperature are important factors in germination. Pre-emergence herbicides do not give effective control for the whole growing season and as the weed becomes larger it is more difficult to control with post-emergence herbicides. In general the phenoxy-type herbicides give effective control, the triazines, ureas and uracils are variable and the acetanilides and anilines are poor. Some herbicide mixtures will suppress E. heterophylla long enough to allow the establishment of the crop and minimise yield reduction but the best control has recently been obtained using a sequence of herbicides throughout the growing season.

The Nigerian general strike of 1981

This is an account of the Nigerian General Strike of May 1981 and of the events leading up to it. It highlights the struggle between the Nigerian military regime and organised labour, and the attempts by the former to incorporate the trades union movement. It traces the formation of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the struggle between different groups within the NLC, culminating in the attempt by one group to break the General Strike. The success of the strike reveals the underlying distrust of the governing elites, including those of the trades unions, and the seething discontent which pervades the Nigerian working class.

The Demand for Pre-School Care: an Aspect of the Problems of the Nigerian Working Mother

One of the changes brought about by the increasing employment of women outside the home is the demand for both custodial and developmental care for their pre-school age children 1. The demand situation for extra-maternal child care in Nigeria seems to be aggravated by the gradual erosion of the traditional resources for extramaternal childcare such as the community of friends and relations, hired nursemaids and servants, and the inadequate provision of extrafamilial institutions such as nurseries and daycare centres. Rather than quantify the demand for extramaternal care for children, this study assesses the childcare arrangements of working mothers and inquires into the existing resources for meeting this demand both within and outside the household. It is concluded that demand for extramaternal childcare of both custodial and developmental nature is not fulfilled by existing resources. Therefore, it is being suggested that an inventory of existing pre-school institutions such as nurseries and daycare centres, programmes for the improvement and expansion of these facilities would facilitate the participation of women in the labour force and their effective contribution to social and economic development.

Ideology and Inconsistency: The “Cross-Pressured” Nigerian Worker

In the climate of ethnic insecurity present in Nigeria in 1964, workers tended to support ethnic over labor parties. A small fraction of workers who were cross-pressured between their ethnic and their labor loyalties however, tended to report that they supported both ethnic and labor parties. These are called the “incon-sistent.” Looking more closely at this group, it was possible to distinguish between those who were descriptively inconsistent (they would describe themselves as supporting an ethnic and a labor party at the same time); and those who were prescriptively inconsistent (they would prescribe support for a labor party while actually supporting an ethnic party). Though descriptive inconsistency varied inversely with political information, prescriptive inconsistency varied directly with it. The immediate political significance of the inconsistents lay in their confusing the predictions of labor leaders who were counting on their support. Beyond that, however, it may be suggested that the inconsistents added to the felt unpredictability of rapidly changing, plural societies such as Nigeria.